Shades of the New World

"How does Ke call it?" Evin asked curiously.

"The Theoretical Experimentation of Runes, or TEOR for short. The study of runes is finally becoming something more than just a subbranch of Magical Engineering."

Tusa explained Ke's new form of study for a bit and Evin couldn't help but compare it to a certain subject back on Earth - Chemistry. 

Chemistry was essentially the study of various elements and compounds composed of atoms and molecules: their composition, structure, properties, behavior and the changes they undergo during a reaction with other elements.

The written form of Rune mixing that Ke developed, on the other hand, studied the composition, structure, and combination of runes and engravings. 

Obviously, modern chemistry was much too convoluted and broad of a subject to be compared to the budding new idea that was TEOR. But Evin was pretty sure this would explode into a giant similar to Scroll-making and Alchemy at some point. 

After all, if this new study worked in any way similar to how Chemistry worked, then they should be able to derive countless more possible runes in no time. After all, through some maths and some speculations they should be able to deduce the existence of not yet identified runes, like how Mendelev deduced the existence of previously unknown elements. 

'I wonder if this Ke accepts sponsors…' Evin couldn't help but think, after realizing the potential of everything.

"Tusa, is it possible for you to reach out to Ke somehow?" he asked after thinking a bit. 

The gaudy young man laughed loudly at the question.

"I sure wish I did. No offence to the Boss Gizel's team, but if I could meet Ke, I'd probably be studying under him, rather than here. But sadly, the man is as mysterious as he is genius. He publishes most of his findings through Paradra Tribe and the latter seems to be very intent on keeping the man's location a secret. Even though I belong to the same Tribe, the Paradra is just so big that it's impossible for a simple intern like me to find whoever I want."

'If he's under Paradra's control, then I guess it's impossible for me to snatch him up. A bit unfortunate, but I suppose it's natural that there are other people who can see the man's potential. And from what I heard, he's a lesser-imposer as well, so it's debatable whether or not he needs the help.'

Soon, Tusa went back to his job of recording and Evin was left alone. Since he didn't have anything to do, he decided to practice some of his other magic.

After an hour or so, the Vulpine Mother came to him after spending some time with the research team. She seemed content to simply watch as Evin practiced, her disorienting collection of tails lazily swaying about in the air. 

Evin was a bit surprised by the Vulpine's sudden outlash the previous day, but something about the emotions she showed through the telepathic shout felt terribly close to home, that he just couldn't feel truly threatened by it. 

During that moment, he could also hear a lot of the fox's stray thoughts going off in his mind: her unrestrained confusion, her worried thoughts as a mother, her love and care for her children. He could also hear a stray warning that went: 'Don't overdo it! Who knows how easy he'll die?'.

'That last one was just a bit hurtful, but it also told me how the Vulpine Mother was also a real person like myself.'

It was actually a bit surprising when Evin thought about how long it took for him to realize this fact. After all, he'd talked with the Authorities before and more than half of them were found to be just a bunch of useless members of society. Sure they were disgustingly overpowered, but with the Empress towering over them, it was hard to imagine that they would go out of line.

'I will probably die for that thought, but I'll do anything to reveal the dark truth to everyone!' Evin thought jokingly, before regathering his thoughts.

'Weird how my instincts decided to choke the black fox and run away, even though the portal I made was probably more likely to kill me, rather than the Vulpine Mother…' Evin remembered another detail of the incident.

He was thinking of his ability to make faster decisions on the fly, so he'd been planning to make a set guideline on what to do on certain situations, and the incident showed Evin that he probably had to take his instinct into account somehow. 

'So much work to do…' sighing, Evin steered his mind to focus on the task at hand, a pair of functioning material portals. 

Some time passed in silence, before the Vulpine Mother's World Sprites started to gather around the two. Evin's World Sprites were too busy being experimented on. 

Surprisingly, the number of World Sprites in the Vulpine Mother's possessions seemed to have stayed the same since he'd left. There were originally about 300 of them and 98 of them had left with Evin. 15 of them merged to become Ayn, Vyn and Lyn, while one of them turned into metal skinshifter and became Runa, leading the total number in Evin's possession to become 84.

But from a glance, Evin could only see 200 or so World Sprites around the two of them, and as another surprise, some of them, about 50 of them, started to get close to Evin, more so than the Vulpine Mother.

If the black fox cared about this at all, she definitely did not show it on the outside. She actually seemed rather pleased by the fact, as she gently pushed the hesitant ones to Evin's side with a motherly smile. 

"I suppose it is time for us to talk about ourselves," a voice suddenly appeared behind Evin, startling him greatly. He looked back in delayed panic to see the creepy World Sprite with the mouth floating in the air with a satisfied grin.

At some point, the Vulpine Mother must have created the thing behind him to give him a little scare.

Getting his bearings straight, Evin replied in a calm manner: "What do you mean, about ourselves?"

"You are my candidate, if you don't quite remember," the World Sprite's smile spread even wider as it spoke.

"Oh, have I become too incompatible?" Evin asked dumbly.

"Ah, not at all. In fact, you're so compatible, I'm getting the urge to shove my body into you right this moment. Who cares if it works or not, right?" the Vulpine Mother said teasingly.

"Of course. After all, it's the natural thing for one to ruin something in a fit of emotions after waiting a whole entire millennium for it," Evin could obviously tell the fox was joking, so he didn't mind playing along.

"That it is…" the Vulpine herself chuckled lightly, as she walked up to Evin and gently wrapped her tails around him.

A soothing fluff of Dark energy emanated from the tails and a comfortable feeling of warmth filled Evin's heart. He was then reminded of his undeath back on Earth, but somehow, his mind ignored all the despairing emotions he usually felt when he remembered his time as a spirit. Instead, he saw all the positive and heartwarming events that stood out to him. 

After all, even if he couldn't directly participate in the events that occurred around him, it wasn't like he couldn't feel glad and empathetic for the people that it occurred to.